ipl-logo

How Does Kafka Present Gregor's Relationship In The Metamorphosis

754 Words4 Pages

The Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka about a man, Gregor, who wakes up one day and has turned into a gigantic insect. The story follows Gregor’s experience following the transformation, as well as how every member of his family is affected. Since Gregor is unable to work anymore as a result of the transformation, his family was forced to adapt to a new way of life. The relationships between the characters in The Metamorphosis show how Kafka believes that a person's isolation and alienation in society is initiated by individuals at the highest levels of social hierarchy and gradually extended downward until everyone in the society has been persuaded to accept the original decision of one individual. Due to his parents’ debt, Gregor is obliged to work for a corporation that Kafka employs to illustrate the top of the social hierarchy, with the manager serving as the most significant figure. When Gregor does not show up for work that day, for the first time in five years, the manager shows up at their house. The family’s treatment of the manager …show more content…

This is shown when she places milk in his room, which "had been his favorite drink and that was certainly why his sister had set it there for him" (Kafka 105). Her reaction to Gregor’s isolation represents how, in society, those with the closest relationship with the person being isolated are most likely to resist aiding the alienation. Kafka then represents the often changing opinions by demonstrating a change in Grete’s perspective throughout the story. By the end of the story, Grete declares, "we must try to get rid of it. We’ve tried to look after it and to put up with it as far as humanly possible, and I don’t think anyone could repreach us in the slightest'' (Kafka 133). The shift in viewpoint illustrated how, in Kafka’s opinion, people stop feeling sympathy for the alienated once it becomes inconvenient for

Show More
Related
484 Words | 2 Pages

“The Metamorphosis”, written by Franz Kafka, takes place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the city is unspecified. The protagonist, Gregor Samsa, is turned into a giant bug and struggles to regain his harmonious life as a traveling salesman. Gregor goes through both a physical and emotional change throughout the novel, from turning into a bug and then being unable to provide for his family because of his condition. Gregor has been changed into a giant bug where he is a not a pleasant eyesight to his family and isn't accepted by his father and mother but only his sister. As the novella begins,”he found himself transformed right there in his bed into some sort of monstrous insect”.

Read More
777 Words | 4 Pages

The Repercussions of Cruelty Cruel actions lead to cruel endings. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist in Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, is turned into a bug from the mental and emotional abuse by the hands of his own family. The cruelty in the Samsa household is apparent from the beginning of the storyline. Their neglect and lack of compassion for Gregor's condition immediately sets the dark and miserable mood of the novella. Gregor’s whole existence has been about caring for his family and making sacrifices for their well being.

Read More
1047 Words | 5 Pages

Gregor, as the breadwinner and dominant male figure of his household, is committed to his job of traveling salesman. In fact, he awakes as a vermin and is immediately concerned about work. He even ventures to say, “The business worries are far worse than they are on the actual premise at home” (Kafka 77), when he has just turned into a beetle, illustrating just how important his position in the family’s social hierarchy is. He is the breadwinner, while the rest of his family is practically leeching off of his work. But, due

Read More
747 Words | 3 Pages

Transforming and Romanticizing a Storyline The Metamorphosis, a novella written by Franz Kafka, attracted the attention of many of its readers due to the writing framework and shocking concepts. The story depicts a man named Gregor Samsa who has befallen the fate of a cockroach- literally. After being transformed into a large bug, Gregor goes through the struggles of misunderstanding, neglect, and loss of his family relationships.

Read More
757 Words | 4 Pages

In the story “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka the main character Gregor and his family dealt with the conflict of his past life as a human, and his current life as a bug. This begins with the opening sentence when it is made clear that Gregor has truly transformed into a bug. The author states, “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had changed into a monstrous insect” (719). Instead of the main character beginning to panic about this transformation he actually began to stress about the job that he has chosen. Gregor thought, “The stress of trade are much greater than the work going on at head office, and, in addition to that, I have to deal with the problems of traveling, the worries about train connections irregular bad food, temporary changing human relationships which never came from the heart” (720).

Read More
552 Words | 3 Pages

At the beginning of the story metamorphosis Gregor is at self actualization, which is the top of maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Gregor is at the top of the pyramid, because he is confident in his job and what he does. Gregor then goes now to the next step which is esteem. He goes down on the pyramid because he turns into a bug. Gregor then goes down to emotional because his family starts to hate him.

Read More
1438 Words | 6 Pages

Through his imagery of Gregor’s feeling "as if he had been buried alive" (Kafka 11) in his isolation, Kafka emphasizes the negative impact of social isolation on mental health. The article The Metamorphosis Masterplots II by Gerhard Brand agrees a literary critic. As he writes “Gregor’s isolation and alienation intensify” (Brand). The author examines the themes of estrangement, isolation, and their detrimental consequences. The protagonist, Gregor, undergoes a physical transformation into a giant insect, which results in his growing social isolation from his family and society, leading him to

Read More
1504 Words | 7 Pages

In which Kafka, through rhetoric, diction, and symbolism, communicated the negative correlation between an economically driven society and its concern for humanity. Kafka also displays this type of society’s creation of economic pressure, its impact on individuals personally and on the family.

Read More
1535 Words | 7 Pages

Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, utilizes language to define the identities and influence of two characters who represent growth in a traditional society. The attempts at rebellion by Gregor and Grete lead to the erosion of their societal influence. The rich language depicts how Gregor manages the stress of being his family’s sole financial provider and also capturing his desire to break away from monotony. The style the short story is written in also reveals Grete’s social inferiority. The language signifies Gregor and Grete’s social identities and the diminishment of their power.

Read More
1259 Words | 6 Pages

Published in 1915, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a tale of a salesman named Gregor Samsa who one day wakes up to discover that he has quite literally transformed into an insect. Unable to support his family as an insect, he is only able to stay in his room and eat the rotting scraps of food that his sister brings him. Over time, Gregor’s transformation into a large bug begins to affect the lifestyle of his family, and they slowly become resentful of him. His family secretly wishes Gregor would leave, and knowing this, Gregor willfully dies in his room.

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

Our real misfortune comes from believing if for so long.’” (Page 47-48, Kafka). In many respects, Grete is similar to Liza, a

Read More
215 Words | 1 Pages

The Metamorphosis can be called as one of Franz Kafka’s best works of literature. The author demonstrates the struggle of human survival- the problem of living in modern society- through the narrator. The author robs Gregor of every sense of his existence by stealing off all assumptions of his life. He is stripped down to the very core of his existence. The protagonist is encountered with fundamental problems of human existence- what it takes to be? -

Read More
199 Words | 1 Pages

Like death or abandonment, alienation is one of the deepest-rooted fears experienced by human beings. As social creatures, humans have the need to identify themselves as one of a group, whether that group is a family, a culture, or a religion. The experience of alienation is one of violation of a person's need for acceptance. Both Leo Tolstoy in The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Franz Kafka in Metamorphosis use alienation as a central theme to comment on the human need to experience love and acceptance. Both Ivan Ilyich and Gregor Samsa experience in their respective tragedies a great deal of alienation, which separates them from the groups to which they have been comfortably attached for most of their lives.

Read More
993 Words | 4 Pages

Explore how Gregor’s metamorphosis can be seen as a symbol of alienation of him in the modern world in Kafka’s Metamorphosis. The literal meaning of the term ‘metamorphosis’ is the process of transformation by which humans change from an adolescent into an adult in two or more stages. The choice of the title by Kafka, creates a significant role for the idea of change to be played. The story suggests a world that is pugnacious and the most salient theme in the book is per say the powerful hegemonizing demeanour of Kafka’s father over him which is shown in correlation with Mr Samsa and Gregor.

Read More
1334 Words | 6 Pages

In the first half of the 20th century, writers began to realize how chaotic and senseless life is. Franz Kafka introduced the world the absurdity of everyday life in the context of his own experience of alienation. Born to a middle-class Jewish family, as a German-speaker among Czechs and disbeliever among Jews, Franz couldn't fit anywhere in the society. In his novel, The Trial, the main character Josef K. is woken up by two warders who come to inform him about his arrest. Knowing nothing about his crime, K., has to deal with the incomprehensible court, which completely changes his life but also doesn't it change at all.

Read More

More about How Does Kafka Present Gregor's Relationship In The Metamorphosis

Open Document